Are you paying attention?

The past year has seen some big challenges for supply chain professionals as a result of natural disasters and economic volatility.

So it is something of a surprise to find a study by the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply warning the UK’s top companies are not paying enough attention to supply chain issues.

The research, which covered UK FTSE 100 companies, found that in comparison to other key business issues such as emerging markets, risk management, sustainability and skills, which all showed a high increase in focus, supply chain issues showed the lowest upturn out of all the terms researched with only a 14 per cent increase.

And it found that the technology sector lagged behind retail and food and drink sectors.

CIPS chief David Noble says: “For retailers, the bottom-line is heavily influenced by how successfully supply chains are managed, so it’s not surprising to see them leading the way.

“Recent disruption caused by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami prompted some urgent refocusing on the resilience of supply chains, not least for technology and automotive companies who saw the greatest impact. What is surprising is how far behind technology companies are in comparison, even falling behind the media sector on supply chain reporting.”

Looking ahead, it would be a brave person who predicted that anytime soon there would be a significant improvement in the market conditions in which most supply chains have been operating.